/*
 * Moonlight|3D Copyright (C) 2005 The Moonlight|3D team
 * 
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
 * Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
 * any later version.
 * 
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
 * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
 * details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
 * 
 * Created on Jul 23, 2005
 */
package ml.backend.selection;

/**
 * This interface must be implemented by all classes that wish to appear
 * in selection paths. It is used for traversal and validity checks of
 * selection paths. 
 * 
 * @see Selection for mor information on selection paths
 *
 * @author gregor
 */
public interface PathElement {
    /**
     * Find a child element with the given name in this path element.
     * This function is used to traverse the backend graphs along
     * selection paths in order to retrieve the the referenced object. 
     * 
     * @param childName the name of the child element to be retrieved
     * @return the child element or null if it does not exist
     */
    public PathElement findChildElement(String childName);
    
    /**
     * Checks if the provided appendix is valid for this path element
     *  
     * @param appendix the appendix string in the selection path
     * @return true if it is valid, false otherwise
     */
    public boolean isValidAppendixName(String appendix);
    
    /**
     * Return the object referenced by the appendix on the selection
     * path for this path element
     * 
     * @param appendix the appendix to be returned
     * @return the referred object
     */
    public Object getFromAppendix(String appendix);
}